Meeting Abstracts of the 56th Annual Meeting of the APS Caribbean Division Abstracts presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the APS Caribbean Division meeting in Costa Rica, February 26–March 2, 2017. Recommended format for citing division meeting abstracts, using the first abstract below as an example, is as follows: Cotty, P. J. 2017. Region-wide aflatoxin reductions for improved food security, income, and health. (Abstr.) Phytopathology 107:S4.7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-107-7-S4.7 The abstracts are published as submitted. They were not edited at the APS headquarters office. http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-107-7-S4.7 © 2017 The American Phytopathological Society Region-wide aflatoxin reductions for improved food security, income, and health Peter J. Cotty (1) (1) USDA-ARS, University of Arizona, Tucson, U.S.A. Crop infection by several Aspergillus species is associated with accumulation of aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are genotoxins that retard human development, impair immune systems, reduce animal productivity, prevent access to markets, and cause cancer. Fungi that cause contamination are distributed throughout warm environments in crops, insects, uncultivated plants, soil, and air. Aflatoxins form in crops beginning during plant development and continuing through crop maturation, harvest, and storage, with crops remaining vulnerable until consumed. Human exposure occurs either upon consumption of contaminated crops and products of animals fed contaminated crops or when small crop fragments and fungal spores are respired. A simple biological control alters fungal populations so that aflatoxin producers are scarce and the quantities of aflatoxins in crops, and throughout the environment, are reduced to below levels of concern. Biocontrol products that use atoxigenic genotypes of A. flavus as active ingredients have been effective on millions of hectares of maize, groundnut, pistachio, fig, and cottonseed. Commercial use in the developed world has shown the safety of fungal communities improving both on treated crops and throughout production areas. Atoxigenic strain based products are also produced in developing countries and are a simple, low tech method for improving both human health and access of agricultural products to markets. Applications take advantage of natural fluctuations in magnitude and composition of fungal communities with treatment influences extending across areas and between seasons with cumulative benefit. Lessons from this type of biocontrol may be applicable to other plant disease problems. 75 years of potato cyst nematodes in the United States: A case study for quarantine pests I. A. Zasada (1), L. M. Dandurand (2), X. Wang (3) (1) USDA ARS, Corvallis, OR, U.S.A., (2) University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, U.S.A., (3) USDA ARS, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A. Quarantine pests pose a significant threat to the agriculture economy of the United States. Potato cyst nematodes, Globodera pallida and G. rostochiensis, are globally important nematode parasites of potato and both are considered quarantine pests in most countries. In the United States, G. rostochiensis was detected in New York in the 1940s and G. pallida was more recently detected in Idaho in 2006. In addition to these detections, a new species of Globodera, G. ellingtonae, was described from populations collected in Oregon and Idaho. The regulatory stories of G. pallida and G. rostochiensis in the United States provide a framework in which to evaluate the pros and cons of regulatory and management/eradication practices used to contain these economically important plant-parasitic nematodes. More recently, GLOBAL (Globodera Alliance) was formed and represents the only comprehensive effort in the U.S. to tackle the threat posed by invasive Globodera. The goals of GLOBAL, including use of genomic approaches to characterize pathogen virulence, identification of potato germplasm with resistance to three species of Globodera, and development of science-based approaches to deal with the threat of Globodera will be discussed. S4.7 New approaches to control postharvest rot in fruits Gerardina Umaña Rojas (1) (1) Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica Postharvest fungal diseases are one of the main factors causing losses of fresh produce in the warm and humid tropical regions. Levels of postharvest losses are affected by type of commodity, country, weather condition, production practices, infrastructure, transportation environment or equipment, and refrigeration facilities. Fungal pathogens penetrate host tissues by direct breaching of the host cuticle or through wounds caused by biotic or abiotic agents in the field or in storage, and through natural openings such as lenticels, stem ends and the fruit pedicel. An integrated approach for postharvest disease management should include cultural preharvest and postharvest practices. Postharvest diseases are often controlled by the application of synthetic fungicides, however, to reduce postharvest losses with minimal use of fungicides, other alternatives such as plant bioactive compounds, biological control agents, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) products, and physical treatments have been investigated in papaya, mango, banana, and pineapple fruits. Integration of two or more of such alternatives to control pathogens could improve management of fruit postharvest diseases. Main phytosanitary problems in the countries of the OIRSA region Carlos Ramón Urías Morales (1) (1) Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA), San Salvador, El Salvador During the year 2016, the global phytosanitary problems were HLB in citrus (C. Liberibacter sp.), and species of fruit flies. At the continental level, the quick decline syndrome of olives (Xylella fastidiosa), and the tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta) in Europe and Africa. Coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix) in Latin America once again caused one of the most important epidemics that drastically affected production, economy and social stability in producing countries. In the American Continent, the most important quarantine pests are Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense 4TR, CBD (Colletotrichum kahawae) in coffee, and the bean kernel Khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium). In addition to these pests, in 2015–2016 crops in the OIRSA region were affected with asphalt spot of corn, geminivirus-whitefly complex attacking solanaceae and staple crops. Tospovirus transmitted by thrips attacking vegetables, and banana sigatoka were the main problems in terms of the number of chemical applications. Scientific societies and professionals play an important role in plant health; especially in the fields of phytosanitary surveillance, pest risk analysis, development of endemic and quarantine pest lists, dynamic phytosanitary risk maps, pest early warning systems and prediction models, specialized technical groups, harmonization of diagnostic techniques, phytosanitary emergencies, pest prospecting for trade facilitation, regional regulation, preparation of technical manuals, virtual trainings; among other areas in the production and operation chains of the Ministries of Agriculture. Fusarium tropical race 4 and it threat to food security and the banana industry in Latin America and the Caribbean Miguel Dita (1), Luis Pérez-Vicente (2), Mauricio Guzmán (3), Carlos Urias (4), Charles Staver (5) (1) Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation-Embrapa, Brazil, (2) Instituto de Investigaciones en Sanidad Vegetal-INISAV, Cuba, (3) Corporación Bananera Nacional-CORBANA, Costa Rica, (4) Organización Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria- OIRSA, El Salvador, (5) Bioversity, International, France Bananas mean food security and livelihoods for millions people in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). About 20 million tons of bananas (64% of production) are locally consumed in LAC and seven countries of the region belong to the top-10 exporting nations. Pest and diseases are major challenges for this crop, especially Fusarium wilt (FW), caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc). In the 1950s, Foc race 1 disrupted the banana industry forcing the replacement of the susceptible cultivar Gros Michel for the resistant Cavendish. While Cavendish plantations remain unaffected by FW in LAC, a new strain, tropical race 4 (TR4), has destroyed more than 100.000 ha of this cultivar in Asia and has recently spread to the Middle East and Africa. TR4 is a quarantine disease and risk analyses suggest that its spread to LAC is matter of time. TR4 not only affects Cavendish, but many other local banana cultivars important for food security. No resistant cultivars to replace these varieties are currently known. Therefore, exclusion is the top priority. While traveler alerts and contingency plans are in place in some countries of LAC, building capacities in growers and services providers on FW symptoms and epidemiology-based management strategies, is still a major challenge. In this work we present comprehensive data about the threat poses by TR4 for LAC giving directions towards exclusion, preparedness and research priorities. Countries are encouraged to engage coordinately on regional exclusion and preparedness initiatives and to strongly invest on innovative and solutions-oriented research programs. Distribution and frequency of the phytopathogenic nematodes associated with potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) in the Province of Cartago, Costa Rica Rebeca Sandoval-Ruiz (1), Lorena Flores-Chaves (1), Danny Humphreys-Pereira (1) (1) Laboratorio de Nematología, Universidad de Costa Rica,